this is war (kind of)
by inotrash
Summary: The Uchiha clan has many traditions, but the best one by far is the yearly paintball war. This time around, Shisui and Sasuke have teamed up to do two things: win, of course, and also cover Itachi in paint from head to toe. —Shisui, Sasuke.


so if you don't know, it's shisui week over on tumblr! this was written for day two, and the prompt was **team**. i was gonna write something serious, i really was; but then i thought about paintball wars and shisui and sasuke teaming up and now here's a little over one thousand words of the two of them beating mikoto and itachi in paintball. and also covering itachi in paint.

yeah i don't even know how i got here honestly

i don't own naruto!

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Shisui closes his eyes and uses his chakra to feel out the surrounding area. There's Sasuke next to him, his chakra pool small but fiery; the natural chakra of the land, of course; but other than those two chakra presences, he can't sense anyone or anything else. He opens his eyes and nods down at Sasuke, who moves to pick up the gun laying on the ground.

Shisui moves out first—if it's a trap, if they're cloaking their chakra to lure them out for the kill, he's a better choice than Sasuke to go out; while he does present a bigger target, he's also faster in movement and in shooting. When he's stood out in the open for two minutes, he decides it's all clear, and makes a motion behind his back with his free right hand for Sasuke to emerge. Once Sasuke's next to him again, his dark, spiky hair hitting just above Shisui's left hip, they move out.

"Okay, Sasuke," he whispers. "You know your mom and your brother better than anyone; where would they be hiding?"

Sasuke thinks about it for a minute, then answers. "One of the caves, I bet. There's one over near the river that Itachi and I hide in when we play hide-and-seek; it has some good shelter, and only one entrance, so they might have taken up there."

He nods. "I know the one you're talking about, I think. Jagged rocks all around the entrance, right?"

"That's it, Shisui. I don't think we're very far from it, are we?"

"No, we're not; we'll go around the back, check with chakra first to see if they're hiding away in there. If they aren't, then we systematically check the rest of the good hiding spaces; if they are—well, then it's war."

When they reach the cave ten minutes later, they sneak around to the back, just as planned, and take shelter under a rock formation after checking that nobody else is in it. Shisui closes his eyes and searches with his chakra, and—_yes._ That's Itachi and Mikoto in there.

He squats down to Sasuke's level. "Okay, Sasuke. They're in there all right. Itachi's in the back, probably as backup for your mom; she's further up, almost at the entrance. I'm going to cloak the two of us with a genjutsu; they'll see through it fairly quickly, but it'll be enough to get us in. Here's what we're going to do: I'm going to sneak in with you, as far as the halfway point of the cave, where I'm going to stop. You're going to keep going, 'til you reach Itachi; and, once, you've done that, you'll start the war. Start shooting him, and don't stop until he's down; I'll take your mother out once you've gotten Itachi, and once we're done with that, we've won this war, and you can wash the paint out of your hair. I promise."

Sasuke nods, then hesitates. "You're.. you're sure this won't hurt them, right?"

He reaches over and ruffles Sasuke's mess of hair. "Completely." He shows Sasuke his right shoulder, marred with a splatter of hot pink paint, a souvenir of his last run-in with Mikoto. "I got shot earlier; it's no big deal, promise. They'll be fine. Have to wash their clothes a few times, though. And maybe their hair. Hey, while you're taking down Itachi, make sure you aim for his hair. I want to see him with electric blue all through it."

Sasuke giggles. "Will do, Shisui. Are we going now?"

Shisui nods, then makes five hand signs, weaving his chakra around the two of them, and into Mikoto's and Itachi's heads as well. "Okay, we're hidden; let's go. We've got about ten minutes before they figure out that I have a genjutsu up. Let's make good use of that time."

They sneak around, and, sure enough, Mikoto's standing guard at the mouth of the cave. He can feel one of Itachi's area effect genjutsu, but he's always been better with genjutsu than his cousin, so he carefully dispels it around he and Sasuke, while leaving it up, so they don't suspect that they're coming. They sneak past Mikoto, and Shisui stops at the halfway point of the cave, just as planned, while Sasuke keeps going until he reaches Itachi, who's crouched behind cover at the back.

Once Sasuke gets close enough to shoot Itachi, he points the gun, and yells, "To war!"

Then it's _on_.

Shisui doesn't have time to look back once Mikoto turns to see what's going on behind her. He releases the genjutsu and body flickers up to his aunt, then dodges a bright pink bullet going directly for his chest. He shoots a bullet of his own, and Mikoto dodges it, answering with three shots, one after the other. One hits his leg, and the other two miss.

He's flipping head over heels to get in close, when something hits his chest and sends him flying into the cave wall. When he looks down, there's an explosion of bright pink across his heart. Mikoto stands across from him, smirking.

"Well, Shisui, you're down. I guess that means Itachi and I wi—"

She goes down just before she can finish the sentence. As she falls, he sees Sasuke, standing behind her with his gun aimed right at the spot where his mother had stood. He laughs and spins around, setting the gun down.

"We win, Shisui! We win!"

Shisui stands and body flickers over to his youngest cousin, picking him up and spinning the two of them around. "_Yes!_ Great work, Sasuke! That was brilliant, taking your mom out when she wasn't expecting a thing."

He sticks Sasuke on his shoulder, then walks over and offers a hand to Mikoto, helping her up. Itachi walks over, and Shisui almost drops Sasuke when he sees the older of his cousins—he's _soaked_ in paint, from head to toe, and his hair has no trace of black in it anymore. Sasuke did _good_.

Shisui laughs and pats Sasuke's head. "Sorry, 'tachi; sorry, Aunt Mikoto. Guess Sasuke and I make a better team than you. No harm done, though, right?"

In answer, Itachi lifts the paintball gun and aims it at Shisui.

Wisely, he chooses to run, keeping one hand on Sasuke so he doesn't fall.


End file.
